Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[Deeare]

17 hours ago, Janderson45 said:

 

Edit:  no light tackle involved, lol!  Tuna spinning setups are a blast, but good luck actually landing a giant on a spinning rod..

Great fish!!!   I love the spinning gear but landing a fish over 300lbs is a BATTLE  that is tough to win and will leave you sore as F.   I've been spooled by giants and it sucks.....not to mention losing $120 of line/leader.   If you think bass fishing is expensive ......don't go for tuna.  

[Deeare]

https://www.onthewater.com/fishing-reports/2014/10/597-pound-tuna-landed-spinning-tackle

 

not sure how the F capt dom landed this monster.   it's the biggest on spinning gear I'm aware of.   But if anyone can do it.....it's him or Bobby rice.  

 

If if you live close to cape cod call those guys and get out there.   It will most likely be the best  fishing day of your life.   Pm me if you need more info

[Mr. Aquarium]

so friggin awesome!!! im on  a mission to get one within the year. been out a few times after pelagic fish, never hooked up. even in Miami going after sail fish mahi and shark. i was shocked that we didnt see one shark on the bait in Miami for 2 days

[Dunks N Dinks]

Cape Update: Spin Cycle
 

Rather than battle perfect storm conditions offshore in the salt, a buddy of mine and I dropped the bassin' tub into Long Pond on Sunday afternoon to fight the good fight against white-caps and gusts to >20mph (SW). Surface water temp was 55-degrees, down from 60-degrees 3-weeks ago. The initial plan of fishing deeper humps and drop-offs with blade-baits in 25-35ft immediately went out the window as my TM couldn't keep us in place (in need of an Ultrex upgrade...), so we were limited to fishing drift-style and in areas not directly in the prevailing gust.

Plan B wasn't exactly scientific but where we found the confluence of rock, weed and bait, the fish weren't too far removed. We did a bit of idling, but as soon as we saw the screen lit up (like below), we would fan cast an assortment of smallie favorites. Biggest fish (a hair over 3.5lb) came on a dead-sticked tube in 6ft near a mooring anchor. Over the course of 5hrs, this pretty random process got us 7 bites with our limit just north of 12lbs. Not too bad (all things considered) for a windy late season outing, with plenty of time to spare to watch the SOX win the series!! 

 

[Janderson45]

Fished an open in Cochituate Sunday- it was TOUGH.  Not sure how everyone else made out as we bailed about a half hour before weigh in.  Looked like about half the field had done the same... Water temps were 51-52 degrees and winds were mostly calm throughout the morning, picked up a bit in the afternoon.  I was marking nice piles of fish in around 30’ of water on humps and points, not sure if they were bass as neither my partner or I landed a bass all day.  We threw a myriad of baits that resulted in some yellow perch, crappie, and pickerel but not a single largemouth.  The shallow sections that we searched seemed pretty devoid of life despite some green weeds still kicking around.  

 

Next up is Candlewood next weekend, hoping that goes a bit better!   I’m always more confident catching smallmouth this time of year than largemouth, so fingers crossed!

[MassYak85]

@Janderson45 Were you able to get under the narrow archway to get into the south section? That's the only part of the lake I've never fished. And have they begun ramp reconstruction. 

[Janderson45]

2 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

@Janderson45 Were you able to get under the narrow archway to get into the south section? That's the only part of the lake I've never fished. And have they begun ramp reconstruction. 

 

Turns out I only fished the North and Middle sections, probably should’ve headed to the south.  A number of guys did fish the south section in full sized bass rigs so it’s doable despite the tournament director warning that it may not be acessible due to high water levels- it was.  

 

No ramp construction yet, I guess it was postponed yet again but I have no idea when it will actually get underway.  Facility was nice if you ask me other than the very steep ramp... I guess that’s one of the things they’ll be fixing.

[DogBone_384]

Tomorrow's weather looks pretty good down around Plymouth - Cape Cod ....  If anyone sees an orange Tundra and/or a tan kayak, it's likely me.  I'm not sure where I'll end up, but I'll be smallie hunting somewhere down there...

 

ADD 01 November:

 

Yep, the weather cooperated, but the fish sure didn't.  I gambled and drove to Hinckley's Pond in Harwich, launching just about noon.  I started on the NW side and covered almost every inch, throwing a blade bait, chatter bait, and an assortment of jerk/crank/lipless baits.  I purposely left my soft plastics, less trailers, at home today, to focus on baits I don't use much.

 

After more than 4 hours of pedaling, drifting, and more pedaling I went back to my truck to rethink my methods and finish my lunch.  I tied on a little white Punisher hair jig and made a practice cast from shore to see if my baitcaster could handle the light weight: nope.  After picking out the bird's next and tying the jig on my spinning rig I made one more practice cast and came up with a dink LMB with a stubby tail.    Not exactly what I drove 1 1/2 hours for, but I didn't get shut out and I'm still on track to catch a fish in open water in MA every month in 2018.  I also had a nice SMB follow my blade bait to the kayak and peel off at the last second.

 

Towards the last hour of daylight I chatted with a local who was fishing from shore.  Jake said he didn't catch anything with trebles there last week but did well on a drop shot and S L O W moving jigs & shakeys along the bottom.  ... note to self...

 

Water temps were 53.x - 54.x and the wind was on/off from the N-NW.

[FishinDinks]

On 10/31/2018 at 3:03 PM, DogBone_384 said:

Tomorrow's weather looks pretty good down around Plymouth - Cape Cod ....  If anyone sees an orange Tundra and/or a tan kayak, it's likely me.  I'm not sure where I'll end up, but I'll be smallie hunting somewhere down there...

 

ADD 01 November:

 

Yep, the weather cooperated, but the fish sure didn't.  I gambled and drove to Hinckley's Pond in Harwich, launching just about noon.  I started on the NW side and covered almost every inch, throwing a blade bait, chatter bait, and an assortment of jerk/crank/lipless baits.  I purposely left my soft plastics, less trailers, at home today, to focus on baits I don't use much.

 

After more than 4 hours of pedaling, drifting, and more pedaling I went back to my truck to rethink my methods and finish my lunch.  I tied on a little white Punisher hair jig and made a practice cast from shore to see if my baitcaster could handle the light weight: nope.  After picking out the bird's next and tying the jig on my spinning rig I made one more practice cast and came up with a dink LMB with a stubby tail.    Not exactly what I drove 1 1/2 hours for, but I didn't get shut out and I'm still on track to catch a fish in open water in MA every month in 2018.  I also had a nice SMB follow my blade bait to the kayak and peel off at the last second.

 

Towards the last hour of daylight I chatted with a local who was fishing from shore.  Jake said he didn't catch anything with trebles there last week but did well on a drop shot and S L O W moving jigs & shakeys along the bottom.  ... note to self...

 

Water temps were 53.x - 54.x and the wind was on/off from the N-NW.

Where is the Hinckley Pond launch?

[DogBone_384]

18 minutes ago, FishinDinks said:

Where is the Hinckley Pond launch?

It's a dirt road, just after the Cape Cod rail trail, on Headwaters drive, coming from route 124.

[FishinDinks]

Ok I thought it was down there just wasn't sure what road it was.  How much parking is there?

[DogBone_384]

Not much.  Two or three full size pickups, without trailers, at most.

[JAB50]

Dogbone_384,

Go to Seymour too. Caught a 3.5lb Smallie on the beach side where you launch your boat. Just go left when paddling out. Caught it on a Megabass vision 110 kinkuro color(blk back,gold body with orange belly). This exact jerkbait and color is deadly on every body of water on the Cape by the way. And I caught a ton of white perch and lost a smallie on a crankbait same color pattern. And the clown colored lucky craft lvr500 also hooked 3 3-4lb smallies that got spit out at the boat. Long Pond harwich gives up some big smallies this time  of year on those baits as well as the blade baits(silver buddies and etc)!

[JG233]

There are no active Ohio anglers on here, so you're getting my report in this thread.

 

Picked up a healthy 2.5 lb'er on a black/blue chatter bait yesterday. Caught a smaller one as well, probably only a pound or so. Water temps were 56. Here's a pic of the bigger bass. 

 

Also! I picked up some weird lowrance activity. Are those bait fish in the second pic? I tried fishing the area, but got no bites. Thoughts appreciated.

[DogBone_384]

3 hours ago, JAB50 said:

Go to Seymour too.

Thanks for the advice.

 

I've fished Seymour a couple times and haven't had much luck at all.  I hit the hump/flat hard as well as the perimeter  where it dropped off, best I could.  I managed a 3 # LMB on a Ned under a tree and some white perch, but not much more.

 

I'm heading back there after Thanksgiving for a few days.  If the water's still open, I'll consider it.  More than likely I'll try somewhere with trout too.  I've caught fish here in MA in open water every month so far, so December's all I have left.  Gonna go with the odds ....

 

ADD: I've had similar success with treble baits with orange on them too.

[Dunks N Dinks]

Cape Update: Pick(erel) Six

Spent an elbow-busting day out on Wequaqet yesterday. The weather was pretty amazing for November (water temp: 55-degrees, sunny and light winds out of NE) ... but unfortunately(??) it was perfect for 3-5lb pickerel mauling everything in sight. The good news is that my buddy and I put nearly 20 fish in the boat (and had 2 largies pushing some serious weight break-off within arm's length), but at least 2/3rds of those fish were toothy critters. The "deal" was that the only active fish we could find (couldnt get bit shallow) were all on offshore spots in 10-18ft around bait that was located in a thick weeds...but the picks were definitely more aggressive in the chilly water. After a few hours of getting broken off fairly often on t-rigged senko's and craws, we finally stepped up the gear and threw reaction baits on braid, which proved a bit more effective. Didn't catch a single small-mouth, which was a bit odd, but then again so was the the absolute display of aggression from the resident pickerel.          
    

[DogBone_384]

I got home from work this morning and took another chance on the Cape.  I started at Hinckleys again, in hope of revenge and finding the Gerber multi-tool I left there last trip.  No such luck for either.  Water temps here were 53.x with a slight breeze from the east.  My Lowrance didn't mark much life.

 

After a couple hours of nothing I moved to Flax Pond, in Nickerson State Park.  Water temps here were 54.x and the wind picked up some.  I managed a dink SMB on a black/blue 3.5" tube and a nice rainbow trout on a deep Rapala Scatter Rap.  There wasn't much going on here and after fighting with my normally long casting, set & forget, *** baitcast reel I packed up and looked for other water.

 

My last stop of the day was Buck's Pond, where I did well the one time I'd been here.  Water temps here were 53.x and fairly breezy.  My Lowrance screen was lit up so I was anxious to catch some good fish.  Nope, wasn't to be.  Nobody was interested in my offerings and it got dark.  I packed it up and left the Cape.

 

Again, a LOT of driving for little return.  At least I didn't get completely shut out today.  I've got one more Cape trip after Thanksgiving.  By then I figure I'll troll for trout and bring a cooler with ice.  Hopefully I'll get my December fish and have a nice meal too.

 

As of now, I'm not working tomorrow so I'll give it another shot at Smallies somewhere in Plymouth.

 

 

[je1946]

A for effort Mike.   No Sheeps?  Hammer and I did a number on em with the blades, jerkbaits last spring and it's a great trout lake.  Tried any lipless cranks and hair jigs?

[MassYak85]

I hit Whitehall on Sunday, not really expecting much with the weather being so turbulent in the days leading up, but hoping to be surprised. Let's just say expectations were accurate...

 

Water temps were pretty much 50° on the nose, and the lake looked VERY clear (post turnover?). A lot of vegetation had died back but there were still some area of green milfoil. I tried to focus on those. What was interesting though is I did see a lot of trout activity near the surface, it seemed like they were feeding on some flies, which I was surprised to see a LOT of. I saw a couple swimming around at the surface in 20+ FOW. As a result I mostly tried trout swimbaits (9" slammer and a Hudd 68). I did get a good bite on the 68 but as luck would have it the fish came from behind, bent the tail back over the hook so when I set it there was no way I was going to get the hook to penetrate through the tail into the fish. Bait came back with some nice rash on it, rather than the slices I normally see when a pickerel takes a bite so I'm 90% sure it was a bass at least, no idea on size though. I also tried a lip-less crankbait around the remaining green milfoil, which I was pretty confident would produce something, but with no luck. 

 

Highlight of the day though was the foliage. Most of the trees were shades of bright orange and as the sun was setting it looked incredible. 

[DogBone_384]

Plymouth it was this morning, Great South to be specific.  Water temps were high 55.x, it was overcast, and GLASS calm.  Seeing little pickerel and bass on the way down the canal got me hopeful for a good trip.

 

By noon the wind picked up and GS was all white caps so I beat feet.  All I had to show for the trip was a big white sucker I snagged with a red/orange Rapala Scatter Rap Deep.  I threw various trebles, a brown/yellow hair jig, blue/black tube, and a gold Binsky at depths ranging from 10' to 40', focusing on the few bait balls I saw.  Got nary a nibble the whole trip.

 

Don't know what it is about this place, but I've made eight trips there this year and got shut out more times than I caught fish.  It's big, deep, has all the text book drop offs, sand/rock flats, and grass fields great fishing trips are made of.  This year is really off there.  The few fish I caught this year were much smaller than 2016 and 2017.

 

With the water temps in the high 55s, I half think I should have brought soft plastics with me.  

 

I've got plenty of reading to do this winter to try to figure this pond out. next season.

 

ADD:  I forgot to mention the two bald eagles that flew over me, the trip's highlight, for sure.

[Janderson45]

Hit the nip for a few hours on Sunday afternoon, caught a fair deal of pickerel on mainly reaction baits but no bass.  I tried fairly hard at getting a jig up in some recently flooded brush and really letting it soak.  I got only one good bite doing this, but it came unbuttoned before I could get a look.  Think I might go back to braid for all heavy cover jigs, the 16lb Fluoro I had on felt a little slower to transmit the bite to the rod than I like.  I assume it was a bass due to the location, but can’t say for sure. Smoked it after sitting still for about 15 seconds after the initial flip.

 Water temps were a relatively balmy 55 degrees after all the rain on Friday/Saturday and the Nip was about as high as I’ve ever seen it.  Still plenty of good weed growth along the northern banks, that’s where we caught all the pickerel.  They came on a big glide bait, a chatterbait, a lipless crank, a wacky rig and a ned rig.  Needless to say they were a little fired up but for whatever reason the bass weren’t. 

 

Plan to get out on these red hot smallmouth waters down the cape this weekend, I’m thinking either Mashpee/Wakeby or Long Pond Harwich.  Will let ya know how we do.

 

Got another couple weekends left before I’ll winterize the boat, bite has definitely been a bit stingy for me recently but I’m feeling confident I’ll figure something out sooner rather than later and it’s a great time of year for big bites.  Stay at it everyone, you’ll be begging for a day in the mid 40s and open water before you know it!

[DogBone_384]

14 hours ago, Janderson45 said:

red hot smallmouth waters down the cape

Let me know where you find them.... I couldn't get more than one dink SMB at Hinckley's, Flax, and Buck's.   Je1946 says Sheeps is the place.  I think there's a HP limit there.  I can pedal my kayak all the way down in 15 minutes or so.

 

https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2016/08/se/dfwsheep.pdf

 

I have Thursday off and might go smallie hunting somewhere.....

[Janderson45]

29 minutes ago, DogBone_384 said:

Let me know where you find them.... I couldn't get more than one dink SMB at Hinckley's, Flax, and Buck's.   Je1946 says Sheeps is the place.  I think there's a HP limit there.  I can pedal my kayak all the way down in 15 minutes or so.

 

https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2016/08/se/dfwsheep.pdf

 

I have Thursday off and might go smallie hunting somewhere.....

I’m generally pretty lost fishing for smallies on smaller ponds without major depth or offshore structure.  I tend to do much better using my s on bigger bodies of water to locate suitable structure and bait.  Probably from all those Quabbin trips, it’s what I got used to and what I’m comfortable with now.  

 

Mashpee/Wakeby will likely be where I head on Saturday, as long as the wind isn’t too crazy. Hopefully I can figure something out, that place holds some studs.  Might be meeting up with @Dunks N Dinks down there so we can attempt to break down the lake together.  

[DogBone_384]

8 minutes ago, Janderson45 said:

I’m generally pretty lost fishing for smallies on smaller ponds without major depth or offshore structure

I'm the opposite.  Great South in Plymouth would be right up your alley.  It's cartop/kayak only, but sounds like your cup of tea.  

 

Fishing Rhino and I did pretty good with the smallies last year at Great Herring in Plymouth.  The ramp is unfinished but Tom gets his Nitro in there no sweat.  Good luck at Mashpee/Wakeby.  I might fish Sheeps tomorrow if I feel like driving an hour and a half each way.

 

Here's a map of Mashpee/Wakeby: https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2016/08/tm/dfwmashp.pdf

[Janderson45]

Well I’d be happy to take you out sometime and show you how I locate and catch deep Clearwater smallies.  Just gotta make sure I’ve still got them dialed in this weekend, might have to do a fair deal of graphic before I actually start fishing.. not sure if they’ll be in true winter locations yet or still somewhere in between.  Will report back for sure.